[145] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
OS/2 USER GROUP MEETING: September 11, Mountain View, CA
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daveb@davebsoft.com)
Wed Sep 6 16:37:59 1995
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 09:57:34 GMT
From: daveb@davebsoft.com
Reply-To: daveb@davebsoft.com
Submitted by: Dave Briccetti (daveb@davebsoft.com)
Source: Dave Briccetti (daveb@davebsoft.com)
Date received: 1995 September 5
Date posted: 1995 September 5
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OS/2 Bay Area User Group http://www.davebsoft.com/os2baug/
Developers SIG Meeting
September 11th, 1995, 7-9 PM
1055-B Joaquin Rd, Mtn View, CA
John Soyring, Director of Strategic Relations, IBM Corporation,
will be the featured speaker at the September meeting of the
OS/2 Bay Area User Group Developers SIG.
Abstract of Talk
There has been a great deal of controversy and uncertainty about
IBM's plans for the OS/2 Warp family of products as presented by
some consultants and some members of the business and trade press
recently. John Soyring intends to discuss the following, with
emphasis on topics of interest to developers:
IBM's Commitment to OS/2 Warp
Strategic Technologies for IBM Software (including OS/2 Warp):
(IBM Microkernel, network centric, human centric, object-oriented
and investment protection technologies.)
IBM's plan for enhancements to the Warp family of products
IBM's activities to gain even greater industry support for OS/2 Warp
He intends to use the meeting primarily for questions and answers, but
he intends to use a set of Freelance slides (.PRS format) to guide the
discussion along the above four topics.
John Soyring Biography
John Soyring first gained an interest in computer programming and for
computers in general in 1969 while studying machine and assembly
programming on an Olivetti computer. Punched paper tape was a state of
the art input medium.
He later moved on to FORTRAN programming on an IBM 1600 at Northern
Michigan University while a senior in high school. Punched 80 column
cards were in style.
John was graduated from Michigan Technological University in 1976 with a
BS in electrical engineering, with a specialty in computer design and
architecture. While at Michigan Tech, he also completed graduate studies
in computer architecture. As a project with two other graduate students,
they designed and manufactured personal computers based on the Intel 4004
microprocessor. John designed and built the hardware, and also wrote the
math library as the Intel 4004 lacked basic math instructions. The
operating system was written in SNOBOL on an IBM 360 by his teammates.
The math libraries, the operating system and custom applications all ran
in 4 KB of DRAM.
Giving up a promising, but impoverished, career as a mountain guide,
John joined IBM in Rochester, Minnesota on April 7, 1976 where he joined
the team who designed the circuitry for what was to become the IBM
System/38. While on this project, John filed and received patents for
various compression algorithms and related circuit designs.
While working in Rochester, John continued his graduate studies in both
computer science and electrical engineering at the University of
Minnesota.
After the announcement of the S/38 in October 1978, IBM found that the
operating system was not going to meet its objectives. John then moved
to the IBM programming group as manager of the team that rewrote the
kernel (64-bit, single-level store, memory management; preemptive,
multitasking process management; queue management; exception management;
etc.) in a year.
John was later promoted to be manager of architecture for the S/38
system, including performance analysis.
In the early 1980, IBM started a project to converge the design of the
hardware and software for its multiple, mid-range systems (S/34, S/38,
8100, 9370, Series/1). John was appointed manager of software
architecture for IBM's mid-range systems division. This project yielded
products such as the very successful IBM AS/400.
In 1984, John was appointed as technical assistant to the president of
IBM's mid-range systems division. During this assignment, John led work
on a project that resulted in IBM buying Stratus systems and selling
them with an IBM label as the S/88.
Later as manager of engineering for IBM's mid range systems, John lead
efforts to get multiple systems to use common circuitry.
In February, 1986 John moved to Charlotte, NC where he was appointed
head of the IBM programming center for IBM's worldwide banking
products. These products included various operating systems, multiple
middleware products and many application products for PCs, IBM 4700
banking systems, automated teller machines, high-speed check readers
and sorters, and mainframe applications. John's mission was to define and
implement a strategy to move IBM banking products from being based on
proprietary technologies (ie, FCL programming language, 4700 operating
system, etc) to "industry standard" technologies (ie, PCs, etc).
MS-DOS and PC DOS did not meet the needs of the banking industry in that
they had many severe problems: memory limits, no protection, single
threaded instruction execution, few management tools, etc. IBM and
Microsoft were developing OS/2, and IBM's banking group selected OS/2 as
its future operating system platform.
In 1988, John was appointed to head IBM's programming center in Austin,
Texas. The center was responsible for developing OS/2 Extended Edition
(including the LAN, SNA communications and relational database products),
as well as other IBM products. As director of the programming center he
led the work of more than 1200 developers and was responsible for the
worldwide business management of these products.
While jointly developing DOS and OS/2, Microsoft had the lead to recruit
and support ISV's in the development of applications. Anticipating that
IBM would have to ensure that applications were being developed and
sold for the OS/2 operating system, John took an assignment reporting
to Joe Guglielmi in IBM's New York headquarters and he was responsible
for starting IBM's developer assistance program for OS/2.
John is now responsible for managing the worldwide group of IBM employees
who manage IBM's relationships with its biggest customers -- especially
other manufacturers (OEM's) who build equipment that use microprocessors.
This mission includes sales of IBM software to these manufacturers.
Directions to Meeting
Take the Shoreline Boulevard North exit off US-101. After passing the
theatre on the left (about a block before Charleston), turn left on
Plymouth, and then right on Joaquin. 1055 Joaquin is on the right.
There is plenty of free parking. We meet in the conference room on
the second floor. Please be prompt as you can only enter the
building between 6:45 and 7:30.
